Chinese measures to curb the coronavirus resulted in a positive clampdown and that country has at worst reached a leveling off period that may or may not rise in a U. The Indian lockdown may or may not take a V turn but it is assumed that the country has entered the third stage where the virus spreads indigenously. What of Nepal? Government figures say at time of writing that there have been no new infected among who two are mended and the rest under control but the latest infected takes us to stage two where the spread to community appears likely. But here is the hitch. We have not done enough testing. By and large those interned in isolation camps are those identified as returnees from a mid east flight from which the first victim emerged. The others are those who came late from India. Among those who are in the camps, government is mum on whether they have been tested and their results or whether their isolation is for that mandatory two weeks by which time they are to show symptoms. One understands that resource crunched Nepal is in dire need of test kits. But the people need be told. As it is, so much information flow on COVID-19 comes with one repeated recommendation: Test, test, test.
The other recommendation is isolation. And so we have these isolation camps. And the people are by and large isolated due to the lockdown. Fine, we went for the lockdown. Given our population, much of the success of the lockdown has been due to the Corona scare. Government need not take credit for this. And, yet, where it could have earned kudos would be in emulating the Wuhan homework for supporting the lockdown by providing provisions to the effected population. Government performance has crashed here despite the sordid experience of the earthquake days. Goods and services that should have been delivered to home and hearth in compliance with the lockdown have been amiss at the grassroots and charges of the same partisan attitudes in delivery have surfaced again. Outside of the inevitable corruption and black-marketing ills, government’s one door policy in the distribution appears to have added to the bureaucracy and delays creating confusion and discouraging volunteers. The abhorrence to party flags and political demonstrations with the largesse is backfiring and the plight of the people has raised pent up anger to near boiling point.
And then one must touch upon the third vital aspect, that of essential equipment. Public abhorrence at the resurfacing of procurement corruption multiplies further when told publicly that timely availability of highly critical supplies have been effected on account of greedy bungling. The problem is that government is aware. But it is impudent. It is this impudence that provokes the public. Conversely a confused public bewildered by a sick prime minister coping with the crisis through committees from his bed cannot but shrug at rumors of intense power struggles and new aspirants backed by foreign preferences. It is thus, again, that the foreign element emerging in these dire times demands a reminder. A botched pandemic in Nepal could affect the neighborhood’s struggle to pull itself out of one. It is the system and not the people that contribute to the current impudence.
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